Sarisbury Athletic captain Dave Banks has been suspended and his club hit with a points penalty following series of incidents in the Southern Electric Premier League Division 1 victory over Liphook & Ripsley two weeks ago.
Banks has been banned for five of the last six matches of the season and title chasing Sarisbury Athletic docked ten points – the first time a club has ever been penalised for disciplinary reasons.
Banks’s five-game ban is for breaching the ECB Code of Conduct and the Spirit of Cricket by committing multiple acts of dissent to umpiring decisions and, as captain, failing to set the required standards to his team and failing to control his players at Liphook on July 6.
His suspension is the second highest individual punishment handed out to a player following the eight-match ban imposed on Havant's Ben Walker two seasons ago.
Banks begins his ban next Saturday when Sarisbury visit New Milton but, provided there are no weather postponements, will be available for his club’s final match of the season at Burridge on August 31, which could decide the Division 1 championship Both sides won on Saturday – Burridge winning by seven wickets at Hambledon, and Sarisbury Athletic crushing Hook & Newnham Basics by 97 runs.
But, following Sarisbury’s ten-point deduction, Burridge are effectively seven points ahead at the top.
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